Key to the Dive
by Zaion Indulias
Summary: Team 7 is on a routine bandit hunt when the world begins collapsing around them. Only a suspect warning from Kyuubi gives them a chance to survive, but is the escape what they expect it to be? Or has Kyuubi finally found a way to free himself?


"Key to the Dive"

Summary: Team 7 is on a routine bandit hunt when the world begins collapsing around them. Only a suspect warning from Kyuubi gives them a chance to survive, but is the escape what they expect it to be? Or has Kyuubi finally found a way to free himself from his prison?

Themes: "Megalith ~Agnus Dei~" from Ace Combat 04, "Finish the Fight" from Halo 3

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"_Targets sighted, two clicks north-northwest from my current position. Alpha Theta 3, 7."_ Naruto's voice echoed from Sakura's earpiece. The fifteen year old kunoichi grimaced and redirected her trajectory through the forest canopy by twelve degrees southwest.

"_Copy that."_ Sasuke's voice responded over the radio link. _"Alpha Theta 6, 5. Moving to intercept. Sakura, what's your 20?"_

Sakura grimaced as she mentally calculated her relative position.

"_Sorry guys. Alpha Theta 8, 8. It will take me the longest to reach the targets."_ She said regretfully as she ceased fingering the kunai hidden in her arm warmer. _Why do they always get to have all the fun?_

"_Copy that Sakura. Be prepared for cleanup or to catch stragglers. We'll try to drive them your way."_ Sasuke replied a moment later sounding almost fond of her.

Sakura nearly giggled at the care her boyfriend was showing.

"_Thanks Sasuke. Sakura out."_

Sakura returned to maintaining radio silence and blurred through the trees, racing night as it began to fall over the Elemental Nations, little dreaming that it would be the last night their world would ever see.

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Elsewhere a red cloaked figure stood before what looked like a massive keyhole carved into rock. His red garments were covered in swirling, twisting symbols done in gold and black threads. His pale face and emotionless green eyes regarded the thing for a long time before a sneer twisted his face.

"The Heart of this World, so unassuming, so plain…so vulnerable." He raised a hand towards it and clenched it into a fist. "How I long to crush it into nothingness, to obliterate it entirely from this world."

"**But you will not, Saber. Remember your place and your orders. Maleficent has ordered this world consumed by the Darkness to breed more Heartless for her army, and so it shall be."** A deeper voice echoed behind the first figure. The pale eyed man twisted his head to look over his shoulder, a lock of silver hair swinging free of his hood as he gazed balefully at the black and gold armored figure behind him. His companion stood a good nine feet tall and only his glowing blue eyes were visible behind his black helm.

"Much good that it will do her, Shield. You and I both know the Prophecy. Yes Maleficent will plunge many worlds into Darkness. Yes she will rule in Darkness…for a time. But in the end, it is the very worlds she asks us to plunge into Darkness that will beget her undoing. I say we just crush them all and get it over with." He turned back to return his gaze to the 'keyhole' before him, his face darkening along with his voice. "After all, without any worlds to beget Darkness, there can be no pain either."

"…**Do your duty Saber, and I shall do mine."** The larger black and gold armored figure said as he strode past and placed a hand upon the 'keyhole', darkness emerging from his gauntlet and beginning to cover the entire thing like a consuming swarm. **"Let this world…Dive into Darkness."**

Saber watched on in silent fury as yet another world was consumed by the Darkness.

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"Huffhuffhuffhuff".

Seidori Riku panted frantically as he ran for his life through the forest, his mind replaying at blinding speed the last few minutes of his life.

Everything had been going great today. He and his fellow bandits, led by Tsume Andoryuu the Bandit King, had hit a trader caravan and made off with over a third of their horses, wagons, and goods. Not to mention several pretty wenches the men were all eager to…'try'out. But just as they were getting ready to settle down and enjoy the girls back at their base camp a blond kid of maybe twelve years of age stepped out of the forest in a ridiculously bright orange jacket and pants ensemble and challenged their leader to a duel for the girls' lives. Their boss was feeling like a little fun so he accepted the kid's challenge.

The Boss never even stood a chance.

Before anyone could react the blond boy had grinned and thrown a three pronged kunai towards their Boss. Of course the Boss was able to dodge that with ease, he was after all a nuke-nin of Mizugakure, but it was what happened after that shocked everyone. Seidori was unsure if the Boss even had time to realize what had killed him.

In a flash of yellow light the blond boy had disappeared, but another blond had appeared behind the Boss in a similar flash of light, his face hidden behind a fox-marked ANBU mask and a straight sword, a chokuto from what Seidori saw, slicing Tsume's head from his shoulders. Then everything went to hell. Seidori was unsure how many of them there had been, but he knew that within moments over a third of his fellow bandits had been either dead or dying and he was booking it into the trees as fast he his legs would carry him, not caring that the sun had already set on the once quiet forest.

A sudden sound in the trees made Seidori drop to the ground, causing him to trip and go rolling over a tree root and down into a deep gulley. Above him shuriken impacted the tree trunk next to where he had been running and he could tell from the dripping blood on the back of his neck that it had been an extremely close call.

Seidori scrambled to his feet in a panic as a pink-haired ANBU in a fox masked landed on the opposite end of the gulley, her expression unreadable in the cold green eyes behind her white mask.

"Please, I'm begging you. Don't kill me. I'll go legit. I won't steal or hurt anymore. I'll even donate to charity. Just please, don't kill me. Please don't kill me!"

The figure began to take a step toward him, the drawn kunai in her left hand glinting in the moonlight filtering down from overhead, when a sudden wave of blackness swept over them. It lasted but a moment but at that moment Seidori felt as if evil itself had clenched his heart in an icy fist and refused to let go. Then all the darkness within him, all the dark and vile and evil thoughts and desires began to bubble forth. His anger at these…these ninja for destroying his life. His anger at the unfairness that he should die here in some gulley while his brother lived the high and mighty life as a businessman in Mizu. His lust for women, his love of drugs and booze and money, all of it bubbled up.

And he screamed, a primal scream of rage and anger and pain as the darkness within his heart began to dissolve his body, until all that remained was a floating black heart and the echo of his scream.

Sakura, who had been fighting her own inner demons after the wave looked up as the scream cut off and froze in terror. Before her, where before had stood a man, now floated a heart-shaped object of inky black darkness. Slowly before her terrified eyes the orb began to grow, five tendrils extending and changing shape until before her stood a tall lanky black figure with big glowing yellow eyes and what looked like antennae coming from its head.

Suddenly a crackle of static from her earpiece broke Sakura from her fear.

"_Sakura, this is Naruto. Whatever the hell that darkness was it wasn't good. Kyuubi is frantic and from where I am I can see the world…dissolving away in the distance, being consumed by the black. Kyuubi claims to know a way to escape it, and I'm inclined to believe him. The few survivors we were hunting just all turned into these creatures of darkness after that first wave hit. I doubt we'll survive the second."_ Naruto's voice echoed through her earpiece. It took Sakura a second to realize that was because Sasuke and Naruto must be standing close together.

"_Where are you?"_ She asked frantically as she leapt into the trees to dodge a strike from the strange black creature and sped towards her teammates' last known position.

"_Just a moment…"_ She heard Naruto mutter before she felt a flare of demonic chakra that nearly made her sick up.

No matter how many times she felt Kyuubi's essence she just couldn't get used to it.

"_Alright, you're pretty close."_ Naruto said as soon as he felt the echo bouncing off Sakura's own signature. "_We'll meet up with you in a minute if you just keep heading the way you are going now. Kyuubi says our means of escape is nearby, but that we don't have much time to reach it before the wave hits."_

Sakura frowned in grim determination as she sped towards her teammates, trying not to think about the fact that her mother, father, best friend, and almost everyone else she had ever known was likely already dead or turned into one of those black monsters.

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When Team 7 finally reached the location Kyuubi was leading them to they were met with a surprise. The cave at the base of a massive tree was indeed there, just as Kyuubi had said, as were the massive 'doors' carved into the wood of the roots in the recessed hollow.

But there were also at least a thousand of those strange black creatures, mostly small scuttling ones that seemed to slink back into and become part of the shadows.

"Well Naruto, does Kyuubi say anything about this?" Sasuke muttered behind his fox-themed ANBU mask.

Naruto frowned for a moment before growling.

"The bastard fox says that all we have to do is touch the 'key' to the door, whatever that means, and it will open and we can escape. What he isn't saying is where to or what the key is, only that it is 'inside me'." Naruto muttered in reply as he crouched and analyzed the pattern of enemies before him.

Sakura looked behind them nervously at the fast approaching wall of darkness, stars winking out one by one.

"Um, guys? I don't think we really have time for a plan." She said anxiously.

Sasuke and Naruto shared a look and nodded, determination evident on their faces.

"You sure you are up to this?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto chuckled but behind his mask he was sweating .

"Who me? You betcha. Now come on, both of you be ready to make a break for the door with my clone while I keep these guys occupied.

Sakura was about to ask what Naruto meant when a clone of himself appeared beside her in a puff of smoke. Then she began to feel the Kyuubi's demonic aura again. Growling Naruto leapt forward and drilled into the crowd of inky black creatures, his assault cutting a swath through to the door and drawing their attention southward, away from both the door and his friends.

"Ok, let's go." The Naruto clone said before running down towards the door at full speed, Sakura and Sasuke close on its heels.

When they arrived the clone took a deep breath and muttered "Here goes nothing" before placing both hands on the door and giving it a push. For a moment nothing happened, then a bright light seemed to well up inside the clone's body and flow into the door and suddenly they creaked open, revealing an ominous blackness that rippled like a standing wall of water.

"Well Sasuke, take care of Sakura for me." The clone says with a cough before vanishing, its energy depleted.

Sakura barely had time to realize what was going on and let out a cry of "Naruto-kun!" before Sasuke grabbed her and dove into the water.

Behind them the wall of darkness closed in, hot on the sprinting Naruto's tail. Naruto just barely made it into the black water before it caught up to him.

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Naruto had no idea how long he fell through the dark waters, but the first he became aware of a change he had landed upright on a wide circle of what felt like glass. He couldn't see the entire picture, but it depicted him and the Kyuubi in battle, the symbol mimicking that of the ying yang. Surrounding the fighting pair were thirteen circles, each with a different symbol inscribed in the glass.

A mysterious voice echoed through Naruto's mind. _"So much to do…so little time…Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?"_

As Naruto began to look around three objects appeared around him in bursts of purple white light: a sword, a staff, and a shield.

"Where am I?"

The mysterious voice ignores his question and continues on. _"If you give it form…it will give you strength. Choose well."_

Naruto stared at the objects for a long time before stepping forward and choosing the shield.

"_The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?"_

"Yes." Naruto replied as he held the shield which seemed to radiate power.

"_Your path is set."_

The shield vanished from Naruto's arm and as the mysterious voice continued he felt something shift inside him.

"_Now, what will you give up in exchange?"_

Naruto turned to regard the other two items. Finally he stepped forward and held up the staff.

"_The power of the sage. Unlimited Wisdom. A staff of great knowledge. You give up this power?"_

"Yes." Naruto replied, more confident this time as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Naruto feels something shift inside him again and the staff and sword both vanish. Then the floor shattered and Naruto dropped downward through the dark. With the agility of a cat he flipped himself upright and landed solidly on another circular floor. This one was covered in a large picture of a smiling blue man looking remarkably similar to an older version of Naruto.

"_You gained the power to fight."_

Naruto looked down as the shield reappeared on his arm, a sigil of wind over waves appearing on it. Idly he tried out a strike with it, surprised by how well it moved with his arm.

Suddenly a group of the small inky black creatures appeared. Naruto was surprised when something in his mind echoed a single word. _Shadows_.

"_There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong and you will succeed."_

Growling Naruto dashed forward towards the first one, throwing a slicing punch just to the side of it and watching as the edge of his shield cut through it. Dropping and spinning he lashed out with a kick that seemed to pass straight through another one and his eyes widened in shock.

_Ok, the shield can damage them but my blows are ineffective._

Naruto spun again and bashed another Shadow away before diving into a roll and slicing two more with a quick backhand, the edge of the shield dissipating them with ease.

"Is that all?" He asked as he rolled to his feet.

"_Behind you!"_

To his dismay, even as the remains of the Shadows dissipated even more appeared, slithering forth from the ground around him.

"Oh come on!" Naruto muttered as he dove forward again. "How am I supposed to stop them with just a simple shield?"

As if in response to his query Naruto felt the power within him well up, answering his call. Moving on instinct he reached out with one hand towards his right and focused. The shield on his arm vanished and in a flash of white light a long blade appeared in his right hand. It was long and elegant, comprised of blue and gold and white lines and curves with a shape vaguely like a key. At the end three silver 'teeth' jutted out of one side and a gold crown was inset in the end of it. Dangling from the hilt on a shining black chain was a red and gold spiral charm, nine flaring tails spiraling out from what appeared to be an eye.

Around Naruto many voices, all unfamiliar began to echo.

_The Keyblade_

_Keybearer_

_Chosen_

_Oblivion_

_Salvation_

_Ultima_

_Destiny Stands on You_

Naruto stared at the sword in awe for a moment before gaining a look of determination on his face.

"Ok, let's do this thing." He grunted out as he dashed forward, spinning and slashing with the exotic blade.

As he destroyed the mass of Shadows he focused on how natural this weapon felt in his hand, how easy the movements all flowed.

As the final Shadow died by his blade the mysterious voice spoke once more.

"_The light burns strong within you. But the closer you get to the light…the greater your shadow grows."_

Suddenly a dark burst of energy appeared before Naruto, resolving into a massive shape rising above him as the glass below him turned pure bone white. When the figure finally resolved Naruto growled and crouched, clutching furiously at the blade in his hand. To his surprise a few black strands spread outward, changing the overall architecture of the blade until the black strands equaled the white.

Above Naruto a shadowy phantom version of Kyuubi, its feet melding into the shadows on the ground and its chest an open hole in an odd heart-shaped symbol, gazed silently at Naruto.

Suddenly Kyuubi dashed towards Naruto and Naruto spun and ran, sprinting towards where a glowing walkway led away from the edge of the platform.

"_But do not fear, and do not forget..."_

Naruto had nearly reached the glowing walkway when the darkness consumed him. The last thing he heard before all went black was one last thought from the mysterious voice.

"_For you hold the mightiest weapon of them all…"_

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When Naruto finally came to he found himself sitting in a dingy alley surrounded by tall silvery-white buildings. Looking up at the sky in wonder he watched the dark clouds as rain fell all around him. Hearing a noise sounding like a fight from down the alley he stood and began to walk confidently down the alley, carrying himself differently than he had before. As he reached the end of the alley and saw a young girl he held his right hand out to the side and focused his will. In a flash of light a black and silver keyblade appeared in his hand, the red and gold spiral charm jingling as he brings the sword into a ready stance.

Naruto's mutters two words, nearly lost in the rain and the sounds of battle.

"_The Keyblade."_

With a cry of battle Naruto dashed forward, joining the pale red-haired girl in battle against the Shadows and other Heartless that swarmed around her, unknowingly taking a step forward towards his destiny.

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**In worlds other than our own a war is brewing, one that will either save or end all creation. The long plans that have led to this war are nearly complete, and soon the players will be in position. Keyblades rise, called forth by those born with the gift. Heartless gather, darkness filling the hearts of men. Nobodies stalk the shadows, shells without feelings to guide them. And through it all the light shines, and the shadow grows ever deeper.**

**Dive into your Heart. What side are you on?**

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AN: And with that :Key to the Dive" is complete. This is a one-shot setting up another idea of mine, something on scale with the original Kingdom Hearts itself. I do however desire some assistance with developing the overall plot and outline solidly so that I can avoid making too many errors. As such, I am looking for someone well versed in Kingdom Hearts and with at least a passing knowledge of Naruto to assist. As most of Naruto's world is gone, and only three characters may have survived, there obviously isn't as large a need for knowledge of Naruto's world, especially since the history of this story is AU to canon anyways. Anyone interested can get my email from my profile and should title their offer to help as "Oblivion Salvation".

I do not want to spoil too much, but the dual-nature of Naruto's Keyblade is foreshadowing of many elements in the first arc of the series, "Oblivion/Salvation", which is analogous to the first Kingdom Hearts game and involves paralleling storylines with it. Also, the girl he is running to fight with will be extremely important to him as a character and to his missing backstory in "Oblivion/Salvation", and while her appearance should not be familiar, she is closely tied to an existing character seen in the games. I'll leave it up to you the reader to draw your own conclusions based upon your knowledge of the series.

Until next time, Jaa ne.

-ZI

PS: My writing muse has returned, though my time to write is still limited. This idea has been in my head for almost a year. The other day the muse to write struck and I cranked this out in about 4 hours, tops. I hope you all enjoy it.


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